BepiColombo Spacecraft Starts Seven-Year Journey to Mercury



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The BepiColombo mission, only the third ever to visit Mercury, blasted off from Europe's spaceport Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45 pm local time on October 19 (9:45 pm EDT), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

It was carried on top of an Ariane 5, the European Space Agency's (ESA's) most powerful rocket.

The mission BepiColombo, named after the Italian scientist Giuseppe Colombo famed as Bepi Colombo, included of two satellites- the ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (DFO, gold "Bepi") and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, gold "Mio").

Tea BepiColombo spacecraft will take a closer look at the role of a fly-by of the Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury itself.

The first image feels back by BepiColombo as it begins its journey to Mercury.

Tea BepiColombo mission will perform mankind's most comprehensive study of Mercury to date.

According to ESA, signals from the BepiColombo were received at ESA's control center in Darmstadt, Germany, confirming that launch was successful.

NASA's Mariner 10 probe, launched to Mercury in 1973, mapped around 45 percent of the planet's surface, and its MESSENGER mission took off over three decades later in 2004 to complete the survey.

A key feature of BepiColombo It is the first interplanetary mission to employ advanced electric ion propulsion technology.

As the sun's closest planetary neighbor where surface temperatures can reach up to 350 degrees Celsius, Mercury has just been analyzed by orbiting spacecraft twice. Celsius (806 F) on the side facing the sun, and -180 degrees Celsius (-292 F) in Mercury's shadow. Add to this, the maximum temperatures of 470 degrees Celsius, and a weak global magnetic field and a very thin atmosphere, called the exosphere. JAXA's orbiter will collect data on the planet's magnetosphere.

Speaking after the launch, Professor Gunther Hasinger, ESA's director of science, said: "This is truly breathtaking.We have today written history".

ESA and JAXA's BepiColombo spacecraft is now well on its way to Mercury to further explore a planet where few spacecraft have gone before.

Recently scientists announced when existing in the world Solar system the planet with the depths of the diamond crystals. Earlier this month, JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe dropped a German-French rover on the asteroid Ryugu.

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